


Mamma Bear

by orphan_account



Category: Free Time - Fandom, Reaction Time, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Best Friends, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Momma Bearing, Overprotective, Talthony, Teasing, YouTube, spacing out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-21 18:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16581617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When every Free Time member is either busy or out-of-town apart from Anthony, Tal decides to ask his best friend to record a video with him. Little does he know today just is one of those days for Anthony, luckily for Anthony though, Tal has been an 'expert' at coddling ever since they met senior year of high school.





	1. Just one of those days

**Author's Note:**

> Italics represent the thoughts of a person.

_Why is it that I keep getting the feeling I’m being left out or forgotten?_ Anthony thought. _I mean, sure, I do still film Free Time with everyone else whenever we do decide to film, but that’s hardly ever, and calling Free Time uploads weekly is a bit of a stretch. Speaking of weekly uploads, I haven’t uploaded to my channel in like 2 weeks, god what the hell am I doing? Why do I feel so tired? I got enough sleep yesterday didn't I?_

“Anthony? … Anthony! Hello, Earth to Anthony?” Tal questioned when he noticed Anthony’s apparent lack of… Anthonyness today, especially when he had already started recording. Anthony was usually always the one to ruin his introductions by talking too much, so him being completely silent was strange to say the least.

_Oh, right. I’m filming with Tal right now, that’s what I’m doing. What did he say this video was about again? I completely forgot, yikes. I’m definitely not having a good day today._

“Anthony!” Tal yelled while shaking Anthony’s shoulders, worry was written all over his face at his best friend’s apparent lack of concentration and overall abnormal behaviour. “Are you alright bro? You’ve not said a word since we started recording 5 minutes ago and you keep spacing out. Is something wrong?”

“I’m fine daddy, you don’t have to fuss over me so much, just cause we met on Tinder doesn’t mean we’re husband and wife. I’m the wife by the way.” Anthony replied, his snarkiness making its first appearance this entire day, though he knew his tone seemed off and he could only hope Tal didn’t pick up on it too. Hopefully the tease was enough to throw him off.

Tal frowned, then let go of Anthony and turned his chair around to face him.

_Fuck, there goes that._

“Well, if you say so bro, I’m just worried about the fact that you haven’t vomited a single word today. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard you talk today at all, you sure you’re not sick or anything?” Tal prodded, clearly still pretty concerned over his best friend’s well-being.

 _This isn’t like Anthony at all, he just seems… off. Maybe we shouldn’t record today, I already have about 5 minutes of Anthony spacing out and 2 of me acting like a mamma bear._ Tal thought.

Anthony leaned in and sarcastically cooed. “Awwwww, I never knew you cared about me this much daddy. At this rate we’ll be getting married next week. Think about it, Anthony Rivera and a giraffe, I did tell my parents I’d marry an animal.” He then proceeded to wrap his arms around Tal’s neck and move them up and down, this was never going to get old.

Tal, who was laughing now, pushed Anthony away. “Anthony! Stop! You weird fuck! God why am I friends with you?”

“Because you love me of course, come here daddy.”

“Okayyyy then… weirdo. Seriously though, you seemed pretty out of it a few minutes ago, so I’m calling off today’s episode.”

“What?! No! Bro you’ll break your schedule. What about your fans? Pretty sure they’d be pretty disappointed when they see Reaction Time hasn’t reacted to anything, not like you have any fans though.” Anthony said, he didn’t like the idea of Tal breaking his schedule because Tal thought he wasn’t feeling well.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got more than you. OHHHHH!” Tal laughed as he jumped back in his chair at his own roast. Anthony’s face was not amused, with one eyebrow raised as a playful threat. “Well, everyone in Free Time is either busy or not available in some way apart from you. Nick and Jojo are on their trip to New York to film for whatever is happening there, Michael is at his grandma’s, David and Cenna are in Canada and Adi is out with his girlfriend. I don’t really feel like filming solo today so…”

“I told you! I’m fine! I’m not sick or mentally ill.” Tal coughed at that. “Hey! This mentally ill man is in your videos, just saying, wonder what that says about the video maker, I wonder if his history will be able to tell us.”

Tal turned sharply towards Anthony, who had managed to steal his phone somehow. Tal made a grab for the phone, but he was too slow and instead had Anthony’s hand in his face pushing him away. “Anthony! Don’t you dare! I’ll kill you! Give me back my phone! Stop messing up my hair you bitch!”

The two ended up ‘fighting’ for a good 5 minutes before Tal started tickling Anthony, making the latter drop his phone, he didn’t stop flooding the echo-proof room with Anthony’s uncontrollable laughs and pleads to stop though.

Tal grabbed his phone and stood up from where Anthony was lying down, both breathing hard. This was usually the case after their brawls. Tal smiled victoriously down at Anthony.

“Yeah, now you know who to not mess with.”

“That’s cause you cheated you cheater!” Anthony accused as he pointed a finger towards him.

“Yeah, well, sucks.” Tal said as he offered his hand out, which Anthony took. “For real though, you should get some water, don’t think I’m over you spacing out during recording.”

“Wow, never knew you were such a mamma bear.” Anthony replied sarcastically, he’s had Tal mamma bear him far too many times now, honestly it was endearing and at the same time infuriating.

“You _did_ sign up for this when we became friends _and_ decided to live together, now, move soldier!”

“Alright, alright! Jeez, no wonder your fans ship us, with this behaviour I’d ship us too.”

“Bro, you basically already do. You’re practically their ship-ambassador.” Tal replied while making a show of rolling his eyes as he pushed Anthony to the kitchen.

“Don’t even lie bro, I know you like people writing stories about you, I know your history, remember?”

“Bro! Fuck you!”

Anthony couldn’t stop laughing at the expression on Tal’s face.

Tal did eventually manage to force Anthony to eat, drink and get some rest in the middle of the day, despite Anthony’s complaints.

* * *

_Two hours later…_

_Oh shit! I haven’t even posted anything on Twitter saying I won’t be uploading anything today! I wonder why I haven’t been spammed with tags of people asking why though._ Tal wondered.

He finally managed to get Anthony to sleep after a good 30 minutes of doing whatever they did when they disagreed. So it was safe to say he was exhausted. Who knew getting a 22 year old to sleep was this exhausting.

Opening his phone to get on his Twitter account, the first thing he saw on his feed was a selfie Anthony took in bed with a clock beside him. The caption read “You guys wanna know why @talfishman hasn’t and isn’t going to upload a video today? Well guess who spent hours mamma bearing me cause they thought I was sick #TalIsTheBiggestMammaBearEver #Talthony”

“ANTHONY! YOU’RE SO FUCKING DEAD!”

“I’M TRYING TO SLEEP DADDY!”

Anthony never did end up getting any sleep, considering the fact seconds after he said that Tal was practically strangling him.


	2. Exhaustion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is based right after Anthony's 10 hour TikTok stream. The link to the video is here, be sure to watch the parts where Tal and Anthony interact (near the end) to be able to understand some references, though this isn't necessary.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4wNkWY71Q

The stream had just ended.

Despite it not even being his stream, Tal breathed out a sigh of contentment. After 10 gruelling hours of torturing himself with cringy TikTok memes, Anthony had finally accomplished what he set out to achieve.

Tal still thought that Anthony's idea of streaming himself watching TikTok memes for 10 hours straight was stupid and a waste of time, let alone an exhausting activity, but that didn't stop him from letting Anthony use his studio for that amount of time and it also didn't stop him from feeling strangely proud of his best friend for completing the task.

He never thought he'd be proud of someone because they managed to sit through 10 hours of TikTok memes, but hey, Tal also never thought he'd get 10 million subscribers on YouTube, so his judgement really was nothing to rely on.

Tal pulled up to an In-N-Out and went through the drive-thru, there was no way he was going to get out of his car and get caught wearing a tank top and criminally short gym shorts.

"Hello?" Tal spoke into the microphone.

"Hello sir, what would you like to have from our menu?" The employee answered.

For a moment, Tal struggled to remember what Anthony had wanted him to get, despite the constant nagging he did for 15 minutes, but doing a quick search through his memory, he found what he was looking for.

"I'd like to order two number 1's please."

"Would you like a drink to go with it, sir?"

"No thanks. That'll be all."

"Alright. Sir, if you would move your car up to the window ahead of you and we'll have your order ready and waiting for you."

Tal complied, silently glad that there was no line of cars ahead of him, but he supposed that not many people would be at an In-N-Out past midnight. Heck, he was only here because he had to get Anthony a few burgers because he ate his dinner, something he still did not regret.

Surprisingly, it took about 3 minutes for the staff to get his burgers when it usually was ready as soon as he drove up to the window, but he chalked their relative sluggishness to it being past midnight, the employees  _were_ human after all.

The burgers smelt delicious, their aroma quickly saturated the air in the car and Tal's mouth nearly watered despite the fact he already had dinner. Not wanting to end up giving Anthony half-eaten burgers, Tal wasted no time on his drive back home.

Upon arriving at the Free Time house, Tal stepped out of his car and was instantly hit with the cool evening air, he'd even go as far as say it was rather chilly, and chilly was not an adjective you'd usually use to describe Los Angeles' climate, though his attire wasn't exactly the most... layered.

From their porch, Tal could see that most of the rooms that were visible were now dark inside, it seemed everyone had gone to bed during his time away, Tal supposed that was understandable, it  _was_ quite late.

Fishing his keys out from his pocket, he swiftly opened the door, eager to enter the warmth of the house.

The living room lights were still on like they have been all day and the door to his studio was still wide open, just as he had left it.

_Guess Anthony's still awake._

Oh, how wrong he was to assume so.

Tal was rather amused at the sight in front of him, it also hit him with a tinge of nostalgia, reminding him of high school projects and all-nighter sleepovers to do said projects. Tal smiled softly at the memory.

Anthony was sound asleep in Tal's studio, with his head resting on Tal's desk, his hat having fallen off at some point, revealing smooth dark hair. Tal always did love running his hands through that mop of hair, and so the few chances he did get to do so, he relished them.

Tal quietly walked over to his desk, careful not to make too much noise as to not wake his sleeping best friend. Moving to shut down his monitors, both of which were still on, Tal accidentally bumped into Anthony's shoulders, causing the latter to whimper and mumble in his sleep.

Tal couldn't help the soft smile that spread across his face upon hearing Anthony whimper like that, it was endearing and if he was being honest, adorable. He wouldn't be caught dead admitting that though, so he was glad the person in question was currently indisposed at the moment.

Once his monitors were off, Tal stepped back and sighed and shook his head at the entire situation, all the while still smiling contently.

Realising that he was still holding Anthony's burgers, Tal carefully made his way out of the studio and into the kitchen, putting the bags inside the microwave, ready for Anthony tomorrow. Before leaving though, Tal made sure to leave a note in front of the microwave, making it clear that the burgers inside were meant for Anthony and no one else. He knew that probably wouldn't stop anyone from eating them if they really wanted to, but hey, he at least tried. Plus, he didn't like the idea of Anthony having burgers for breakfast, the fact that they both skipped the gym today, Anthony because he was streaming and himself because Anthony was streaming, only strengthened Tal's resolve against allowing Anthony to have burgers for breakfast. Though he knew doing so would most likely lead to a quarrel tomorrow morning. But if that was what it took to keep Anthony healthy and reasonably in-shape, then so be it.

Tal strolled back into the studio, where Anthony was still asleep, having not moved a muscle during his absence. It then struck him that he had no idea how he was going to get Anthony to his bed upstairs without having to wake someone. Tal really didn't feel like waking anyone from their sleep at a time like this, that just seemed rude, and he didn't have the heart to wake Anthony and tell him to move upstairs. Tal liked to think he was reasonably strong, but he wasn't so full of himself to think that he could carry Anthony up the stairs to his room and then lift him up to his bed without either dropping Anthony or collapsing altogether.

So, any room upstairs was out of the question, leaving only the living room, kitchen and his bedroom as the last options. The decision was obvious.

Tal carefully made his way back over to where Anthony was sleeping and slowly but carefully lifted Anthony out of his seat. Tal was worried that he'd wake Anthony with all this movement, but instead, all Anthony did was shift and snuggle against the warmth of his chest, causing Tal to blush uncontrollably.

 _This is so embarrassing, why am I doing this again? Damn you Anthony for falling asleep here._   _I swear if someone catches me carrying Anthony bridal style I am done for._

Tal hadn't meant to carry Anthony bridal style, but it was really the only way he could think of that involved the least sudden movements as possible. That didn't stop it from becoming completely mortifying though, despite the fact no one was there to see him do it.

Anthony was lighter than Tal expected, it seemed his best friend was working out behind his back, and that was just completely unacceptable, he'd get back at Anthony for that, but for now, he was grateful for it.

Tal slowly moved out of his studio, making sure to keep a stable and tight grip on his sleeping friend, he was not about to drop Anthony, not now, not ever.

The door to his bedroom was open, just as he left it earlier this morning and he was silently patting himself on the back for it. Trying to open a door while carrying someone was harder than the movies made it out to be.

Tal carefully lowered Anthony down onto his bed, with the latter unknowingly grasping for his warmth as Tal pulled away. Tal huffed out a quiet laugh at this, it wasn't always you got to see a 22-year-old act like an adorable toddler.

Leaning over Anthony, Tal pulled the covers and draped them over Anthony's sleeping form. Once he was sure Anthony was fast asleep, Tal breathed out a sigh of relief and exhaustion, he didn't realise how tired he was until now, having been far too caught up with trying to get Anthony to a bed without waking him. But now that that was done, successfully he must say, it was safe to say Tal was completely exhausted.

For a moment he considering sleeping on the chair in his room to give Anthony some privacy and space, but he soon wrote that off as a bad idea, he did enough of that in college and Tal was pretty sure his back was not going to be happy with a round 2 of sleeping on a chair, and he was sure it wouldn't hesitate to tell him so in the morning.

 _Well, this isn't the first time we've had to share a bed, and he's my best friend, so I guess it's alright._ Tal reasoned.

Tal yawned, a testament to his weariness.

He moved towards the entrance to shut the door to his room and turned off the lights while he was at it.

It wasn't long before Tal found himself tucked underneath his warm covers, staring at the side of Anthony's sleeping face, smiling contently all the while.

He knew that'd he'd have some explaining to do in the morning, but this was Anthony he was talking about, Tal was sure he wouldn't mind.

"Good night Anthony."

 


End file.
